Structure ban delayed for Little River residents

Residents with property backing onto Little River have won a delay in a city attempt to get rid of their waterfront docks, boat lifts, decks and sheds.

The city is worried that all these backyard accoutrements — installed over the last 30 years — are compromising the ability of the river to serve as a storm water outlet. A city report recommends sending the residents a notice warning them to get rid of them within 60 days.

But on Monday, residents asked for a deferral so they can get together with city staff to work out some sort of compromise.

“Why all of a sudden do you need to disrupt our lifestyles?” Riverdale Avenue resident Tammy Kapsalis asked, explaining that many Little River residents moved there to have water access. Kapsalis has a small dock so her family can launch canoes and kayaks.

The river was developed as a flood-control system in the mid 1980s, but a survey of Little River in 2014 found 73 of the 165 properties backing onto the river had “altered or breached the dyke in some manner.”

People have installed boat docks, sheds, fencing, stairs and landscaping, either attached to the steel breakwall or constructed in the earthen berm that rises behind the breakwall and serves as a guard against severe flooding. But it’s also part of the residents’ backyards.

Staff members are concerned about docks and other obstructions becoming dislodged during high river levels and smashing into downriver bridges, causing damming that could worsen flood damage. There are even locations where the dyke has been “completely breached, leaving gaps in the system,” potentially compromising the structural integrity of the flood control system.

“Without repair or removal of the obstructions, the dyke system fails to provide the safety for which it was designed,” says a staff report.